The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-06-07
raE woMEN'S METEOROLOGICAL
SOCIETY
Some Interesting Points About Babies

one fat little hand suggests curious
question to the casual observer who chances
IN meet the young woman, who woke one
,,,o,ning and found herself famous, rolling
comfortably through shady walk of
Central Park, conveyed by her important
Looking nurse Is the Cabinet baby having
her brain investigated, and are the internal
arrangements of the round little skull hid
den away under that muslin cap accurately
1,Titten down? The mental status of the
infant in arms is the latest subject Of invest
igation for this inqulring century, and the
boId the study has taken in Washington
and the number of Senators wives and
other women interested in it gives any small
heir apparent, possibly scientific, from that
quarter. new and novel interest. The
matter is becoming a live one i'll New York
also and the baby assumes importance i'll
quarters in which his possibilities were
never appreciated before.
Physically considered, his royal highness
+ha ruler of the households aches and paines
have required, even DANGEROUSLY, a deal of
attention in the past. Morally speaking,
old Jonathan Edwards blackened the urchin's
character to the best Of his ability when he
damned the young sovereign for the sins of
his fathers But the actual contents of the
haby,s brain is the unknown algebraic
which a sanguine generation aspire to write
down in good Arabic figures as an estab-
ljshed fact of everyday knowledge.
The Women's Anthropological Society,"
whose headquarters are at HOO M street
n W., Washington, and which has taken
the matter vigorously in hand, counts Mrs
Teller, Mrs. Blair, Miss Cleveland, Kate
Field and Miss Florence Spofford among its
active members. Baby Cameron, now a
fine lively little girl, is one of the capital
children whose mothers have joined in
stndy of the early days of the little people.
In New York DR.. Elizabeth Stow Brown, of
the Infant Asylum, who has something over
eighty children in her care, isrecording their
DEVELOPMENT. Marion Harland's grand
children the three little folks belonging to
Mrs. Christine Terhune Her1ick, have care
full statistics kept of them, so it is said, as
data for child growth. Mime. Emma Neva-
das S-month's-old baby, who was born in
France of an American mother and German
father, and who ought to furnish an interest
ing subject for the study of mixed race
characteristics, is another child with whom
similar pains are taken. Dean Rachel
Bodley is interesting the students of the
Woman's Medical College in Philadelphia.
Western women have taken up the matter
with some zeal, and families in Oregon and
Colorado are known to be actively enlisted
A dozen or SO of Brooklyn babies are on the
lists of the society, and some Boston mothers
are ready to lend to it the sanction of the
Hub.
Well, and why not2 The intellects of cats
dogs and monkeys have been deemed worthy
q good deal OF probing. The child may
prove not unworthy the attention even of
that highly respectable class Of persons who
devote their time and labor, as Ruskin has
put it with robust scorn, to investigating
the method of generation of earth worms.
The baby, which is subjected to the tender
mercies of the Anthropological Society,
finds them not at all cruel. 1t can still
suck its thumb and dig its fists into its eyes
and kick off its socks in peace as in the days
before science turned a sharp-eyed gaze
upon its innocent unconsciousness The
society, which has been organized for two
years now, but which is about entering on
more active stage of its existence, wishes to
obtain the cooperation of as many mothers
throughout the country as possible. The
infant which goes down on its record books
has done for it, Systematically, what every
youngster which meets with any welcome
in this world has done for it in some desult-
DRY fashion Its physical characteristics,
health, food, weight, ETC., are observed, and
its mental development is noted week by
week as the bud of brain unfolds.
1t might not be bad idea to exclude, for
a time at least, all first borns from the
record, such children being, as all parents
know, unDrecidentedly precociouS, given to
saying papa at the age of weeks and of
no value at all as establishing a general
average. With these intellectual marvels
left out Of account, the protege of the an
thropologists will have jotted down for it
its earliest manifestations of intelligence,
and the subsequent growth of the wee tot,
step by step and stage by stage, from the
moment it first turns its wandering uncer-
tain gaze to the light, through the days
when its fingers clasp round an object put
within their grasp and those other days
when it goes on exploring expeditions and
finds its toes, as veTitable discoveries for it
as America for Columbus, begins to recog
nize faces, to creep to walk and graduates
out Of babyhood into childhood and beyond
Statistics thus obtained are to be embodied
IN yearly reports from as many sources as
possible; and if the number of people inter-
ested be large enough, facts of general value
for scientific study can be obtained, it is
thought, which promise a more intelligent
knowledge of babyhood and childhood a
truer insight into childish characteristics
and mental processes, into hereditary
tendencies and better foundation for the
beginnings of education.
A record book to be kept for the benefit
OF all the small proteges of the society will
be issued some time this month, giving full
directions for taking measurements, weights,
testing sight, hearing, etc These books are
to be kept'in duplicate by the parents; one
OOU W ue lOl WdIucu W ucduQldTbeIS every
year to become part of the records of the
society
A partial list of the preliminary questions
to be answered, which have been prepared
BY Mrs. Clara Bliss Kinds, includes the
9abys name in full Tor number by which
It is to be designated If the parents object
osendlng more, the health of the mother
before its birth; the child's bodily peculiar
lies, including any hereditary characters
TICS or mother marks" its weight naked,
tne color of its hair, its condition of health (;
lts temper, good-natured or fretful the age
at which it first showed consciousness of any
sort, as sensibility to pain; the age at which
u noticed the prick of pin or folio a
hSnt with its eyes; when it first sat alone,
crept, walked; the age at which it first spoke
and what it said, the character of its food,
average hours of sleep in twenty-four its
paooylsh ailments if any For an older
enid the age at which il entered school, the
sharacter of exercise, it's plays and, play
thlngs; any marked artistic capacity; the
sGITe OF Its memory, retentive or unreliable.
me baby's height is to be taken by plac-
ing IL on its back, standing book against
lead and feet, and measuring the distance
netWeen. For child the height is taken
WIN bare feet standing against the wall
WIN light book across the head. Sight is
Ssoed by reading types OF given sizes at
even distance; hearing by the distance
"a Ieet the ticking Of watch can be heard !;
knowledge of colors by skeins OF worsted.